(Kim Raff | The Salt Lake Tribune) Julie B. Beck speaks after being relieved as Relief Society president during the182nd Annual General Conference of the LDS Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. on April 1, 2012. Beck served five years as the faith's top women's leader. Some LDS feminists would like to see more women speaking at General Conference and also raise the visibility of the church's Relief Society president. Neylan McBaine, founder of the Mormon Women Project, says LDS women experience a "tremendous amount of pain" over what they can and cannot do in the church. Credit: Scott Lunt Neylan McBaine, founder of the Mormon Women Project, says LDS women experience a "tremendous amount of pain" over what they can and cannot do in the church. Courtesy Image (The Associated Press) Elizabeth Cady Stanton, reformer, advocate of women’s rights in an undated photo. LDS women formed alliances with this trailblazing women's activist. Julie B. Beck, former LDS General Relief Society presient. Beck served five years as the faith's top women's leader. Some LDS feminists would like to see more women speaking at General Conference and also raise the visibility of the church's Relief Society president. Courtesy LDS.org Stephen Holt | Special to the Tribune "The purpose of Relief Society is to prepare daughters of God for the blessings of eternal life," stated Julie Beck, Relief Society general president, during the General Relief Society meeting held in 2010 in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Beck served five years as the faith's top women's leader. Some LDS feminists would like to see more women speaking at General Conference and also raise the visibility of the church's Relief Society president. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian at Harvard, laments what she calls "the great disappearance" of Mormon women from high-profile visibility within the LDS Church. Kristine Haglund, editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, says LDS women yearn to be more useful within their faith. Credit: Kristine Haglund Tresa Edmunds, founder of LDS WAVE, says Mormon women "will be marginalized" as longs as church leadership hinges upon the all-male priesthood. Jana Riess, Mormon writer and editor, regrets that LDS women "are so systematically underutilized." Credit: Jana Riess (File | The Salt Lake Tribune) Some Mormons argue that LDS women should be allowed to serve full-time missions at age 19 and for two years — like their male counterparts. Right now, they must be 21 and serve for 18 months. (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) Historian Kate Holbrook, shown here during her research of Mormon food culture, is co-director of a conference on "Women and the LDS Church" planned at the University of Utah. Margaret Young, BYU English professor, says members with concerns about the gender roles outlined in the LDS Church's 1995 family proclamation "deserve to be heard." Courtesy image. (Tribune File Photo) Belle Spafford oversaw LDS Relief Society for nearly 30 years in the mid-20th century and helped with global relief efforts after World War II. Chelsea Shields Strayer, Mormon blogger and activist. Courtesy image. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Photo illustration about the equality of women in the LDS Church.